FRANTA
(b. Trebic, Moravia, Czechoslovakia, 1930)

Franta is an internationally renowned French artist and sculptor, born in Czechoslovakia.

Franta studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague before fleeing his homeland in 1958 to live and work in France. The sense of exile and the early encounter with human suffering continues to permeate his work.

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Franta has travelled extensively and his experiences in Africa in particular have had a profound effect on his work.

The body is always at the centre of his practice and his paintings and sculpture obsessively interrogate the human condition through the filter of his own life's experiences and bearing witness to others' lives. As such, his work is suffused with compassion and generosity. It also transmits an intense physicality and vibrates with the artist's own vital energy.

In addition to numerous gallery exhibitions around the world, Franta has held solo exhibitions in museums across Europe and the USA:

Museum Exhibitions

PARIS , Musée Galliera /

NICE, Centre National d’Art Contemporain – Villa Arson

ANTIBES, Musée Picasso

MENTON, Musée de la Ville

CANNES, Musée de la Castre

DUNKERQUE, Musée d’art contemporain

GRENOBLE, Musée de la Peinture 

GRENOBLE – LA TRONCHE, Musée Hébert / NICE, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain 

MENTON, Palais de l’Europe

BEZIERS, Musée Riquet

MONTBARD, Musée-site Buffon 

CAGNES- SUR-MER, Musée-Château Grimaldi.

BOCHUM, Kunst Museum / DETMOLD, Lippische Gesselschaft fur Kunst.

PRAGUE, Musée Tchèque d’arts plastiques

TREBIC, Malovany dum

CESKY KRUMLOV, Egon Schiele Art Centrum

BRNO, Musée de la Ville – Spilberk

PRAGUE, Museum KAMPA

PRAGUE, Nova Sin.

NEW YORK- BRONX, Bronx Museum of Art

MILWAUKEE. WI, Haggerty Museum of Arts.

Monographs

FRANTA / par Bernard NOEL, Editions MAGE Publisher Inc , Washington DC, 1987 avec le concours du Ministère de la Culture( FIACRE).

FRANTA / par Evelyne ARTAUD, Editions Cercle d’Art, Paris 2001 – Collection Le Pré.

FRANTA / par Jean-Luc CHALUMEAU, Editions Somogy, Paris 2009. FRANTA / par Jan KRIZ, Editions GALLERY, Prague 2009.